Zarya spacecraft
Encyclopedia
The Zarya spacecraft was a secret Soviet project of the late 1980s aiming to design and build a large, manned, vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL
VTVL
Vertical takeoff, vertical landing is a form of takeoff and landing using rockets . Multiple VTVL craft have flown. , at least five VTVL rocket vehicles are currently under development at four different aerospace companies...

) space capsule
Space capsule
A space capsule is an often manned spacecraft which has a simple shape for the main section, without any wings or other features to create lift during atmospheric reentry....

,
a much larger replacement for the Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz spacecraft
Soyuz , Union) is a series of spacecraft initially designed for the Soviet space programme by the Korolyov Design Bureau in the 1960s, and still in service today...

.
The project was shelved in 1989, "on the eve of the Soviet Union's collapse."

After the project was shelved in January 1989, for financial reasons, the name was reused for Zarya
Zarya
Zarya , also known as the Functional Cargo Block or FGB , was the first module of the International Space Station to be launched. The FGB provided electrical power, storage, propulsion, and guidance to the ISS during the initial stage of assembly...

 the first of the components of the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

.

Design

The Zarya spacecraft was designed around a bell shaped re-entry section or Descent Module like the Soyuz spacecraft but it did not have a spherical orbital module. It had a smaller service module, also known as an instrumentation and propulsion module.

The Zarya spacecraft would have differed from all previous spacecraft by having an array of a dozen rockets for making a soft landing upon return to Earth, without using a parachute.
This would have been much like the McDonnell Douglas DC-X
McDonnell Douglas DC-X
The DC-X, short for Delta Clipper or Delta Clipper Experimental, was an unmanned prototype of a reusable single stage to orbit launch vehicle built by McDonnell Douglas in conjunction with the United States Department of Defense's Strategic Defense Initiative Organization from 1991 to 1993...

 prototype.

Mission

The Zarya spacecraft would have brought crew and supplies to Mir
Mir
Mir was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia. Assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996, Mir was the first modular space station and had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft, holding the record for the...

, or supplies only in automated mode if need be, and it would also have been a general purpose workhorse for assembling or fixing other spacecraft in orbit.

It would have had a normal crew of two to four, and offered the possibility of carrying a maximum of twelve if used as a Mir lifeboat.

See also

  • McDonnell Douglas DC-X
    McDonnell Douglas DC-X
    The DC-X, short for Delta Clipper or Delta Clipper Experimental, was an unmanned prototype of a reusable single stage to orbit launch vehicle built by McDonnell Douglas in conjunction with the United States Department of Defense's Strategic Defense Initiative Organization from 1991 to 1993...

  • Reusable Vehicle Testing
    Reusable Vehicle Testing
    The Reusable Vehicle Testing project was conducted by the Japanese Space Agency from 1998 until 2003. The project involved a series of experimental vehicles to test repeated flights of a reusable rocket. Four complete vehicles were developed during the project...

  • Quad (rocket)
    Quad (rocket)
    In rocketry, the Armadillo aerospace Quad vehicle is a computer controlled VTVL rocket that is used to compete in the Lunar Lander Challenge.-General description:...

  • Blue Origin New Shepard
    Blue Origin New Shepard
    The Blue Origin New Shepard reusable launch vehicle is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing , suborbital manned rocket that is being developed by Blue Origin, a company owned by Amazon.com founder and businessman Jeff Bezos, as a commercial system for suborbital space tourism.The New Shepard makes...

  • Kankoh-maru
    Kankoh-maru
    The is the name of a proposed vertical takeoff and landing, single-stage to orbit, reusable launch vehicle family of rockets, and the spacecraft tour vehicle designed to be boosted by said rocket.-Details:...

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